Our Eternal Consciousness and Other Realms
What do I mean by the “enchanted cosmos”? I mean that reality is far different from what we are commonly taught, and that Jesus comes to show us this larger truth. Christianity itself also often understands these truths.
For instance, one belief of Christianity is that there is life after death. It says that after physical death some eternal part of us will continue to exist in heaven or perhaps hell, and that in these places we will encounter beings like God, Satan, demons, Jesus, angels, seraphim, deceased loved ones, and all the heavenly host. This basic Christian assumption has some extraordinary implications.
The first implication of this theology is that our consciousness is separate from our body. If we go to the great beyond after our physical body is dead, this means then that our consciousness is not generated by our brains, because our brains are worm food by the time our souls are in either heaven or hell. In other words, Christianity states that some foundational part of ourselves, some intrinsic part of who we are, is eternal and not physical. We don’t need a physical body to exist.
“There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another… So it is with the resurrection of the dead… It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body… Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed.” – St. Paul, 1 Cor 15:40, 42a, 44a, 51
A criminal speaks to Jesus as they are both at the point of death, “’Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” – Luke 23:42-43
The second implication of this theology is that there are realms beyond this one inhabited by other beings. This means that according to Christianity, earth, this physical universe, is not all there is. There are other dimensions of reality where non-corporeal beings exist.
“I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him.” – 1 Kings 22:19
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God.” – Luke 2:13
Many Christians live in a kind of compartmentalized understanding of who they are and how reality operates. On one hand, our religion tells us we have an eternal soul within our mortal body and that after physical death, the soul will inhabit a spiritual body in another realm beyond the physical. On the other hand science and the society in which we live (for the most part) tell us that none of that is true, that only that which is three dimensional, that which is physical, is real. Our society operates as though there is no consciousness outside of the brain and no transcendent realms. This creates a kind of internal tension within Christians. In which world do we live?
In short, these are two important beliefs of Christianity.
1) We are eternal beings whose consciousness is not generated by our brain, and therefore it can be separated from our physical body.
2) In addition to the earth-plane of existence, there are other dimensions of existence where various types of non-physical beings dwell.
Frankly, these are some really good points to help orient ourselves to the Enchanted Cosmos.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash